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Friday, 2 December 2016

Although we saw several species of duck on the trip, one of
my favourites is one of the showiest of Eurasian ducks, the Red-Crested
Pochard. I have seen them many times before, but they are always a good bird to
find. Males and females are quite distinct, with only males displaying the
bright orange head that gives them their name.

Saturday, 26 November 2016

A couple of weeks ago I spent a very pleasant week in
northeast Spain on a trip organised by the tour company Ornitholidays, one of
the oldest ecotourism companies in the UK. It was a three centre holiday, with
us staying successively in the Pyrenees, near Lake Gallocanta, and finally at
the Ebro delta. Target species were Common Crane, Lammergeier, and wallcreeper,
and I am glad to say that we got good views of all, along with many other good
species such as Little Bustard, Bonelli’s Eagle and Bluethroat.

Friday, 11 November 2016

Of course, the other famous fish in the latest animated
movie this year is the anemonefish or clownfish. There are at least 30 species
of these in the world’s oceans, all but one of them in the genus Amphiprion. The species currently on
show are a pair of Percula Clownfish, A.percula.

Friday, 4 November 2016

The last species in the big tank is unfortunately rather
secretive at present, but hopefully as they mature will become more visible.
The Epaulette Shark, sometimes called a Walking Shark, Hemiscyllium ocellatum lives in shallow waters around Australia and
New Guinea.

Saturday, 29 October 2016

One of the most
popular families of fish to be seen in hobbyist tanks are the anemonefishes and
damselfishes, the Pomacentridae. Closely related to the almost entirely freshwater
cichlids, they have very similar breeding behaviour, with one or both of the
breeding pair guarding a nest of eggs laid on the substrate until the eggs
hatch. The main difference from cichlids is that damselfish larvae are much
smaller and disperse immediately into the plankton on hatching, whereas most
cichlids engage in long term care of the fry.